


Something just like this

by FireflysWriting



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: 1000 years of the Arrangement, Aziraphale and Crowley Through The Ages (Good Omens), Book Omens, Good Omens 30th Anniversary, Good Omens Celebration 2020, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Love Confessions, Mentions of COVID-19, Other, Sharing A Cottage, The Arrangement (Good Omens), anniversary fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysWriting/pseuds/FireflysWriting
Summary: Their 1000th anniversary is coming up. And despite all this time, they did not truly celebrate it much differently throughout the years. Except for a few hiccups, maybe.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28
Collections: Good Omens Celebration





	Something just like this

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my betas [cutestcloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutestcloud) and [Djap](https://archiveofourown.org/users/djapchan).
> 
> [Podfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24469690)
> 
> This is for all those who are desperately searching for book only fic. Enjoy.

The Arrangement was born out of convenience. Something that was supposed to help both parties lead a more comfortable life. And while there certainly had been instances before where cooperation had been in their best interest, having it in writing [1] was very much a comfort. So they shook on it.

“Glad that’s out of the way, then,” Crowley said, relieved.

Aziraphale nodded, visibly happy with how things had gone.

“Got anything you want to do now?” the demon asked, mind firmly on a relaxing evening with the angel, celebrating their new deal with a lot of alcohol.

"Well, I suppose we could get married now," Aziraphale stated.

Crowley felt like he had just missed the last step on a flight of stairs. "What?" he said eloquently, and then immediately added, "I mean not that I wouldn't, ah, like that, but why?"

Now it was Aziraphale's turn to be confused. "This is the done thing, is it not? Marriage to secure your financial and social status?"

"Ah, yeah, sure, sure, that- that part of marriage. I thought more about the whole child raising thing, er."

"Well, we don’t need an heir, now do we?"

"Hm. No, no I guess not… Is that the only reason you want to get married?"

"Oh, erm, I mean, yes?"

"Hm," he said again. "It's still priests doing the marrying thing, right?"

Aziraphale nodded.

"And I am assuming Heaven keeps track of all bonds forged in the name of God?"

"Yes? But wha- … oh, I see. Well, that is unfortunate." He took a moment to think. "We could still host a celebration?"

"For who? You got any human friends I don't know about?"

"... No."

"Thought so."

But once there, neither were willing to let the marriage idea go, both for reasons they'd rather not disclose to the other. In the end they settled with a celebration for just the two of them. An unofficial marriage, if one wanted to call it that. [2] One could not claim they did not have a good time at least.

In the end, maybe it was for the best that neither the Arrangement nor the marriage had actually been witnessed by anyone but the two of them. It was very dangerous information to have, after all.

* * *

Over the next few years, both Aziraphale and Crowley were intermittently sent on missions all over the European continent, so any time they had together was rather short lived. The next time they were able to meet up on their anniversary date was in 1027, and at that point they had a rather grave argument about some thing or other and then Crowley managed to get himself discorporated.

So it came that the first time they did actually celebrate was in 1078, which ended with both of them drunk off their asses in the middle of October, which was nowhere near their wedding day. Neither of them cared.

On their 100 year anniversary, the two of them were exhausted by the aftermath of what would later be known as the First Crusade. Both Heaven and Hell had had an avid interest in the outcome of it and in turn sent quite a bit of personnel to spread their influence. Unluckily for Crowley and Aziraphale, this left them under almost constant surveillance and had them on edge for almost 15 years.

So when they were finally left alone again, they made quite a big thing out of actually having the freedom to spend time together. And this time they did, in fact, manage to set up almost a tradition of celebrating what both still didn’t want to admit to be a very important day to them.

Well, until the Second Crusade started.

To say Crowley would have been surprised if Aziraphale didn’t take charge of the 400 year anniversary would have been an understatement. If you asked the angel, he would have given the spread of the Holy Message, or maybe boosting of morale in a time of grave illness as a reason, but if you asked Crowley, it was most likely to spite the Heavenly Host, even if they could never find out about it. A bit of personal vengeance if you will. The fact that there was, as always, a lot of alcohol and food involved, was definitely a point towards Crowley’s hypothesis. Heaven still very much frowned upon gluttony, after all.

* * *

At some point in 1684, Crowley realized he could pull a similar stunt in two years’ time, and immediately told Aziraphale he’d take care of it and not to worry. Not two days later he was on the verge of cancelling it again because he had realized something important. After all, there was only one thing Hell would find worse than befriending an angel. [3]  
Good thing he had so much time to plan, then.

Maybe a bit too much time. In the end, he had somehow micromanaged every single aspect of their evening. His small vegetable garden was scared stiff by the time he came to collect [4] and the butcher’s boy would make sure that he’d never have to deliver to the demon again.

The food was great and Crowley’s planning impeccable, but in the end his angel was just too good at thwarting him, however inadvertently it might be.

"You know, I really don't know what I'd do without you sometimes," Crowley smiled timidly. "Probably sulk in some corner of the world about how lonely I am."

Aziraphale put down his fork. "Crowley..."

"I mean, I am so lucky to have you here, to, to be able to- I mean, just look at us, we make the strangest pair, and, and I just wanted to say-"

"I love you."

"-how lucky I am that, that- what?"

"I love you.”

Crowley stared at him wide-eyed. “Are you- are you for real right now?”

“I’m fairly certain I am real,” he teased.

If Crowley could blush, he would have right now. “That’ssss not...”

Aziraphale gave him a little smile. “I love you. I have for a long time and I think it’s high time I finally admitted it. If you don’t feel the same, then-”

Crowley put his head in his hands. “Angel, no.” 

The other’s smile crumpled.

The demon gave a small laugh. “Here I am, having planned this entire sssodding thing only for you to waltz in and beat me to it.”

“Oh,” Aziraphale said quietly.

He lifted his head then, expression completely vulnerable, but with a timid smile. “I love you too.”

“Oh,” he said again. “Well, I am glad that is cleared up then… my dear.”

Crowley didn’t know if he would ever be able to give back the love Aziraphale was showing him in this moment, but he was certainly going to try. And right now, there was only one thing he wanted to do.

“Can I... can I kiss you?”

“Of course,” came the answer, as if anything had ever been obvious between them.

That night, the demon fell asleep leaning on his angel, smiling contently.

“Happy anniversary, my dear,” Aziraphale whispered.

Three days later Crowley was ordered to go take stock of the American provinces, and Aziraphale was sent to London, to keep an eye on the colonial development from there. They didn’t see each other again for over a century.

* * *

Crowley came back in 1789, just in time to ignore the mess happening in France, proceeded to find Aziraphale and his new bookshop and then promptly went to sleep.

Surprisingly, they had a mostly uneventful century after that [5] and used it to make up for lost time. Needless to say, it didn’t take them very long to become regulars at the Ritz once it was opened.

Until...  
Well, you all know what happened then.

And after that, they had to figure out what to do. Free of any responsibilities, without any supervision.

They bought a cottage, a cozy little thing just close enough to the sea that you could smell the salty air during the day. Getting used to actually living together took more time than they had liked and less time than they had thought, but even during their arguments about furniture placement and morning routines they couldn’t wish for anything more.

* * *

One quiet evening in 2019 [6], Crowley was watching TV. That in itself was not anything unusual. The program he was watching, however, was.

Somehow he had ended up on a documentary about 11th century weaponry. Now, the reason he did stay on that channel was because they were showing a seax with a beautifully decorated sheath, depicting snakes and wings ornately intertwined, which the curator explained to have been created ‘...somewhere in Scandinavia roughly 1000 years ago...’.

Crowley remembered commissioning that seax to be made when he had had to go up north for some business, and decided that if he had to brave the bloody cold at all, then he could at least get something out of it. He had sadly lost track of it a few centuries later, after being sent on a mission on short notice one too many times, but honestly he couldn't complain where it had ended up. The curator seemed to take good care of it and he had no real use for a weapon anymore, but he did mourn its loss since he had it made to commemorate…

His brain, catching onto a very important detail, went through the motions of the confused math lady meme, when he, unlike her, actually came to a conclusion.

“Angel!” he cried and jumped up from the couch.

“What?” came the shouted reply.

Following the voice to its source, he ended up in their bedroom, where he excitedly exclaimed, “It’s 2020 next year!”

Aziraphale looked up from his book in confusion. “Yes?”

Crowley was obviously waiting for him to make the same connection he had just made, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. “We got married a millennium ago!”

He took a moment to respond. “We did? That’s nice.”

“‘That’ssss nice?’ Is that all you have to say?”

Aziraphale hummed, shrugging, and went back to his book.

Crowley looked at him in bewilderment. “I cannot believe- oh. You're trying to rile me up here, aren't you?"

"Maybe," the angel admitted, amusement now plainly visible.

"Well, I just thought we should do something about that.”

“What, you want a divorce?” he joked.

“Aziraphale,” Crowley deadpanned.

“Hmmm?” he smiled at his husband.

“You. Are unbelievable,” he groaned and proceeded to faceplant onto the bed. Aziraphale patted him consolingly. 

“I still really want to do something,” he said into the angel’s side.

“We’ll figure something out.”

* * *

“Some kind of celebration, definitely,” Crowley stated.

They were sitting on their garden swing in their conservatory [7], watching the snow fall outside.

“So getting drunk together isn’t enough for you anymore, is it?” the angel teased. Crowley started to protest, but Aziraphale cut him off before he could. “We do ‘some kind of celebration’ whenever we can. What would make this one so special?”

Crowley blinked. “You do.”

Aziraphale sighed and leaned against him, smiling. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I mean, we could invite people. We probably should invite people.”

“And then do what?”

“I don’t know, what do people do when they celebrate an anniversary? Eat cake and drink champagne. Or something. And maybe dinner after that.”

“That’s still something we do every time,” the angel pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but this time we wouldn’t be doing it alone,” Crowley countered.

Suddenly the whole thing didn’t seem to be so appealing after all. “But then there would be people there! And we’d have to do small talk and all that.”

Crowley leaned away to look at him. 

“Aziraphale, are you scared of making small talk?” he grinned.

“No, of course not. But it’s so tedious and boring and, and…”

“How about just people we actually know then?” Crowley interrupted. “Adam and his husband, what was his name, Tim or Tom or something, Anathema and Sarah, Madame Tracy… Do you think Warlock would come?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

They fell into silence for a while, but thinking about the Young siblings’ marriages sparked another idea in Crowley. “How do you feel about getting an actual marriage certificate this time? I mean, now that we can?”

That got a reaction out of Aziraphale, who shrunk back guiltily. “Ah, er, I mighthavealreadygottenoneforus?”

“Sorry, you kinda what?”

“I, ah, may have miracled one up when we bought the house? And then forgot to tell you and then it just got too awkward to admit it…”

Well that definitely took a turn, Crowley thought. “You did what now?" he frowned, not sure if he should be upset, a bit annoyed or just plain amused. "Can I see it?”

“Yes, of course.”

Aziraphale summoned a white sheet of paper with green ink printed on it and held it out for Crowley to see. He grabbed it.

_Certified copy of an entry of marriage, May 10th 1990 between Aziraphale Ziraphale Fell and Anthony J Crowley_

“Putting yourself first I see. Also the J is a nice addition, though a bit useless without the full name.”

Aziraphale huffed indignantly. “Well, you’re the one who refuses to tell me what it is.”

“Because it’s embarrassing! Although, I’m not sure which one of us got better off in the end, with the mess you made of your name here.”

_Age 37 and 29, …, Father’s name and surname Ezra Fell and Aleister Crowley_

He snorted at that.

_In the presence of us, Humpty Dumpty and Jane Doe_

“What.” Crowley stared at the paper aghast. “Aziraphale, why?” 

“I was in a hurry [8] and thinking of names on the spot is hard!”

“Why not leave it blank then? You cheated with all the rest after all, could have filled it in later."

“Because then I’d have known it wasn’t complete to begin with!”

“Only you, Angel,” Crowley smiled, definitely amused now. ”What did you need it for anyways?”

Aziraphale cleared his throat. “Well, it turns out there are quite a few benefits to being married co-owners of a house. It was for the greater good, you see?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine, the greater good understands." He leaned back against Aziraphale. "Doesn't mean we couldn't still get married though.”

“What, in a church?”

“No, no, of course not. Not everyone gets married in a church these days and the certificate angle is out, but we could still, you know, set up a celebration?”

“Yes, certainly, but aren’t we married like that already?”

“Not with actual people there, we aren’t.”

“Yes, I suppose that is true. But I get the feeling that something is still missing.”

Neither of them could think of anything to add though, so the conversation derailed for the time being.

They moved to the couch not much later, accompanied by a bottle of this or that, not that they could tell anymore several hours in.

"'m just saying, 30 years is a looong time. Like, s over half of a human life exssspcdancy."

"Ah, but that was centuries ago. Now they got all those fancy machines and, and penillicin nd doctors n all."

"Sssure, then you add nother maybe 30 yrss on top of that and it's still nod much. S'why they celebrate so much. Better get all out of life you can get, yknow, before etrrnal damnation or boredom."

There was no response.

"’Ziraphale?"

"Shush!"

"Wha-?"

"I'm trying to- to think here!"

Another pause.

Aziraphale grumbled. "Great, now it's gone."

"Eh. Probably wasn't that inportant."

"It was! I can feel it!"

Crowley tried to think. "What do humans do n these- oh right, rece- reca- do again what they were doing."

"That's a- a great idea! … what were we talking about?"

"... I don't remember."

So they dropped the topic, figuring that if anything was going to happen about it, they wouldn’t be able to force it.

* * *

It was a few days later, when something did.

"... so I told him we were celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of surviving the apocalypse. No idea what exactly he thought this was a metaphor for, but Jon laughed and then, and _then_ Martin said 'Yeah we just went through something similar ourselves-'"

"RENEWAL OF VOWS!" Aziraphale interrupted rather rudely in the middle of Crowley’s retelling of the market gossip. "What?" he almost snapped in response. But when Aziraphale interrupted the gossip it had to be important.

The angel in question didn't even notice Crowley’s irritation. "That's what I couldn't remember! Humans do this all the time, when they reach a milestone in their marriage or sometimes even every year…"

Initial annoyance long forgotten, Crowley looked at him as if he had… well, the common human phrase would be ‘as if he had hung the stars in the sky’, but there really wasn’t anything to compare Crowley's love for Aziraphale to at this moment. "Angel, I love you so much," he stated, grinned and kissed him with everything he had.

"Is that a yes, then?" Aziraphale smirked.

"Yes, it's a bloody yes. I love it!"

* * *

But the universe can be cruel sometimes [9], and by early March it was very clear to them both that their planned celebration was not going to happen.

So on the celebratory day, there was only one thing left to do. Get drunk.

“I thought Pestilence had retired,” Aziraphale lamented.

“False propaganda. You know that just as much as I do.“ Crowley stared into his glass. “Maybe this is their payback, finally.”

“How would they even know about this?”

“Who knows. Who knows anything with those five, really.”

Aziraphale sighed.

“Well, can’t help it now. Better not test how much trouble getting a new corporation would be for us right now.”

Crowley grimaced at the thought and sunk deeper into Aziraphale’s side. “Yeah.” He huffed. “Well, look on the bright side, at least now you don't have to entertain anyone. Considering what almost happened last time you tried that, maybe it’s for the best.”

“Oh shut it, you. It couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Whatever you say, angel.”

“Still, I was looking forward to this,” he said, miffed.

“I know. But there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

But Crowley could still feel Aziraphale thinking, and was not disappointed when the angel stated, “Actually, there is one thing I would still like to do.”

He leaned away and turned towards Crowley, putting the glasses on the table in front of them and taking his hands.

“My dearest Crowley,” he paused, and continued with a grin, “wily serpent, bane of my existence and love of my life. When I first got assigned to apple duty, the idea that one single demon was going to change my life so profoundly was unthinkable. But for the last 6000 years now, you have been an almost constant companion to me and I cannot imagine a life without you in it anymore. I will never be able to properly explain how much it means to me that you’ve stayed by my side this entire time. I love you dearly and I will continue to stand by your side for as long as you will have me." And then he was pressing a chaste kiss to the corner of Crowley's mouth.

He looked at his demon, eyes brimming with adoration. Crowley's were glittering with emotion and he had to wipe away a stray tear.

It took him a moment to respond. "That… that was so sappy, angel. But yes, always. You think I'm ever letting you go again? I found actual happiness with you, not something I can say I ever had before. For all of humanity’s brilliance, they have nothing compared to you. You’re my constant, my north star, and I can always count on you to pick me up again when I’m down. I love your bastardous streak that contrasts so wonderfully with your kindness and how fiercely you defend everything that you consider under your protection. I really want you to know how lucky I am that I get to talk to you, to spend time with you, to love you. To call you mine."

The demon's eyes almost seemed to glow in the light streaking in through the window, his feelings plain to see for anyone who took the time to look.

Aziraphale held onto Crowley's hands for dear life. They were both crying now.

Crowley gave a wobbly smile. "Just look at us. We're a mess."

He leaned his head on Aziraphale's shoulder. The angel in turn wrapped his arms around him.

"Yes. But at least we're together."

"Yeah," he whispered, sinking against Aziraphale in a more relaxed position. They did not know what the future held for them. So many uncertainties lay ahead, but both of them found security in knowing that they wouldn't have to face them alone. "Together."

* * *

* * *

1 Well, not actually in writing, much too precarious for that, but at least as an official spoken agreement. [↑]

2 They certainly did. [↑]

3 Well, next to cancelling the apocalypse of course. [↑]

4 Not that they dared to let that fear be shown in any part that Crowley wanted to harvest. [↑]

5 If you can call two world wars uneventful. Well. There was no interference from either heaven or hell however, which was… odd, but they weren’t going to complain, now were they? [↑]

6 Quiet so far, at least. [↑]

7 What Germans would call a Wintergarten (Or Americans a sunroom), not what others would also call a greenhouse. Though to be fair, there could also be plants in a Wintergarten. In this case, there definitely were. [↑]

8 He had been panicking. [↑]

9 Though if asked, both God and the Universe would deny their involvement in this. [↑]

**Author's Note:**

> Further thanks to my friend Iva, who provided me with the names Humpty Dumpty and Jane Doe
> 
> The meme referenced: [Confused Math Lady Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/math-lady-confused-lady)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Something Just Like This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24469690) by [Djapchan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Djapchan/pseuds/Djapchan)




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